words & spice

basil // they/them // 19 // queer fantasy writer and artist // follows come from @basimaree but we don't talk about that

[writingbasil]

introductions

hello there! i’m basil, your friendly neighborhood fantasy nerd!

i’m a queer writer and artist, and this is my attempt to shout at the universe and see if the universe responds. in other words, i will be throwing words and character scribbles into the void and then running away.

writing things:

- i write fantasy! mostly queer fantasy! occasionally i pretend to write science fiction, but it inevitably turns back into fantasy because science fiction tends to require science, which i’ve gotten into a very nice habit of avoiding

- i write a LOT! probably not good for my grades but definitely good for my happiness, and happiness > grades

- i draw a LOT! usually my characters! sometimes other people’s characters! if you want me to draw your character i will be very flattered and maybe even do it someday

- i’ve done (and won) nanowrimo twice! along with @writer-bird i won on the first day this year! apparently it broke me because my daily average word count is now near 5000

- i’m jigamaree on the nanowrimo site if you want to stalk me and/or be my pal!

things i am writing:

deep breath

the flame sequence: a girl named fern gets transported to another world, where magical shenanigans happen and two angry people try to tear the universe apart. it’s a trilogy and maybe someday i’ll actually finish the last book.

sky cities: a girl named katrin wakes up in a city floating in the air with no memories. a boy called the inquisitor thinks she is a superhero reincarnate. katrin does not agree with this analysis. 

the queen’s trial: a kingdom attempts to choose a wife for the crown prince by putting on a complicated game show-style competition. there is queer romance and drama and trauma.

night patrol: two sides of a magical island hate each other. one side, the innins, have been in control of the island for generations. the other side, the efryas, do not like that at all. this causes some problems.

necromancy: a boy named kit dies. this is a problem because he does not want to be dead. he therefore decides to come back to life. unfortunately, to do so, he needs to track down his murderer and kill him to take his place. many people do not like this plan.

correspondence: a very silly plotless for-fun wip about fake college tennis rivalries and magical keys and spraypaint on bridges.

mm: my top-secret wip for april nano!

other cool people: 

@writes-about-gays-and-dragons​ and @rangerlexi-writes​ and @writer-bird and @maybeawhumpblog and @writehanded <3<3 i’m really just copying all of them, don’t tell anyone

[inking-violets]

find the word tag

thanks for the tag @crystallized-ink​!

my words were dream, accident, regret, and house/home.

from snad

DREAM

I’m almost too tired to climb onto my cot; I almost fall asleep on the floor right there. With a herculean effort, though, I drag myself onto the hard mattress. I kick the blanket of the bed; I’m hot enough that I don’t think I’ll ever need a blanket again in my life. Ever.

I’m asleep within seconds.

And I dream.

ACCIDENT

The story of a boy whose father, cold and distant, was now as distant as he could be. Whose ashes were scattered in the wind.

The boy who was faced with the umenan general, who said that your father had an accident and who said that I am in charge now who said I am a busy man, who said You are in charge of this prison now.

Your father had an accident.

REGRET

Kai eyes the mug. It’s steaming. Poison?

“Tea,” Two says drily.

“Still could be poisoned,” Kai mutters to themself. Again, without thinking. Again, they regret it.

HOME

Once, when Kai was young, they crouched behind a caravan wheel, unable to move. Frozen, as death rained down upon their home.

A frozen child in a heat blasted wasteland.

i’m tagging @writing-wrenegade @writes-about-gays-and-dragons @writingbasil @rangerlexi-writes @writehanded @starsappearinglikepaintsplatters @ladiesofdust and anyone else!!

your words are stars, cry/cried, safe, and alive

[writingbasil]

ooh la la this is interesting, i think maybe i know how this works?? my words are stars, cry, safe, and alive, and these beautiful excerpts are from necromancy! STARS

Kit stands again. He grips his arm as he crosses over to the window. The wound Morgan gave him back in Ebin has been slowly but surely widening, white light spilling out like Kit is full of stars. Kit does not know what is happening, and he does not like it.

CRY

“May I talk to your parents, please?” she asks again. “Hmm.” Emi ponders this for a moment. “No. They’re mourning.” This is true. “They aren’t seeing anybody right now.” This is not true. “They’re fasting right now. The only thing they can do for the next fourteen days is cry.” This is the most blatant lie Emi has told in the last four hours.

SAFE

They were not strong enough the first time, not strong enough to fight back against the man in black and everything he stands for. They want to believe that they can do better now. But dark basements and hands on backs and dangerous things wait down the path of rebellion. It is safer to stay on the man in black’s good side. Safer to stay where the trees are green, where the woods have not yet burned away into ashes black as coal.

ALIVE

Kit does not want to leave Havinport. But Kit, fortunately, is not alive. And the dead do not make the rules.

uh uh i feel like all my taggees were already tagged so sorry if you get tagged again :P @seawatermelon @augustwrites49 @maybeawhumpblog anddddd your wordssss are danger(ous), relief/relieved, smirk, and laugh

[fuukonomiko]

REBLOG if you have amazing, talented WRITER friends.

Because I certainly do, and I love every single one of them and their work.

[somanywords]

so i sat down to get some editing done, and somehow i scrolled through tumblr and read some fanfiction and sang with my sister and got around to eating something and drew a picture and did literally anything that wasn’t editing

[writing-wrenegade]

introductions

Hello everyone! You can call me Wren or Crow, and my pronouns are ey/em or they/them. I'm your local nonbinary lesbian writer and I'm here to have some fun. And also to write ungodly long posts because apparently I ramble too much! Anyway. On to the important stuff.

Writing Stuff:

I've been a writeblr before!! Not for very long, and I dropped off the face of the earth about a year ago because I have no follow-through, but if anything around here sounds vaguely familiar, that's why.

I write mostly fantasy, because I love magic and cool names and worldbuilding too much to do anything else. Sometimes I dabble in sci-fi.

I've done NaNoWriMo 2019 and 2020, and both Camp events for 2020, but only gotten 50k once.

My record for words in a month is 100k (NaNo 2020), and in a day something like 11.5k (also NaNo 2020. That was A Time).

I'm either write stories with almost no plan at all or with every chapter outlined. Anything in between never seems to work out. Does that make me a plantser?

Chronic underwriter when it comes to novels, chronic overwriter when it comes to anything else (text walls incoming. Prepare yourselves).

Sometimes I write poetry! And by sometimes I mean, like, twice a year.

Oh, yeah, I'm trying to write 500,000 words this year! (Or, from November 1st to October 31st). It's going....okay?

My Current WIPs:

(In order of priority)

Other Lost Things: Six kids end up on a boat, running from the law and their various dark pasts. Some of them have magic (which, spoiler alert, is illegal) and some of them don't, some of them are friends and some of them are strangers and some of them are friends-turned-strangers. It's about humanity and morality and the blurry lines where they end. Also, it's gay. And a second draft full-rewrite, yay!

Little Pieces: It's a bit about assassins and a bit about found families and a bit about princesses and a bit about soulmates, when I remember those exist in this world. It's one of the WIPs I don't really have a plan for, but I'm pretty sure there's no magic aside from the soulmate thing.

Saybliye: Actually, the full working title is shadows at your back and light in your eyes, all lowercase for the Aesthetic, but I pretty much exclusively call it saybliye. Anyway. It's a story I'm cowriting with the wonderful amazing @writer-bird, and it's about a world split in two. There's a magic tracker on the tech side of the world and a rogue magic user ex-rebel and they should be enemies, but maybe they don't have to be. (I write the tech side POVs!).

Between Worlds: *cringes* Okay, I have to put this here because come June it's becoming top priority, but it's kind of an unreadable, non-chronological mess that needs to be almost totally scrapped, so. But it's about magic forests and prophesied Chosen Ones and lots of other somewhat cliché but really fun things. Also, there is an ancient, lost, sentient magic library. And a fox with wings.

SOS: Okay, this is my Super Duper Top Secret April WIP, so I can't say anything about it just yet, but it's here, it's queer, and it's set in a world I am very very excited to talk about, because it's cool.

Other Fun Stuff:

I have some pretty cool writer friends! You should possibly go check out @writes-about-gays-and-dragons, @rangerlexi-writes, @writer-bird, @writehanded, @writingbasil, @maybeawhumpblog, @starsappearinglikepaintsplatters, and @writingaroundtheclark. (Why some of those urls aren't linking, I have no idea. Whoops?)

Also, I need some writeblrs to follow! So anyone who likes or reblogs this post will get a follow!

[inking-violets]

bi scrivener

because i don’t know How To Tumblr y’all are just gonna get really random things

for tonight’s random thing, check out the pastelly bisexual colored scrivener theme i made!

[inking-violets]

ahem i just looked at that and uh yeah umen stimulus checks do not exist that was from very early planning stages ignore that

[writingbasil]

does shirrdust exist :eyes:

[inking-violets]

i’ll be honest i totally forgot it existed but let’s go with yeah

[inking-violets]

OH LOOK

[writingbasil]

well would ya look at that, can we all forget that ever existed so you don’t throw it in cam’s eyes

[inking-violets]

#does he even have eyes anymore

no comment

[writingbasil]

i hate you

[inking-violets]

bi scrivener

because i don’t know How To Tumblr y’all are just gonna get really random things

for tonight’s random thing, check out the pastelly bisexual colored scrivener theme i made!

[inking-violets]

ahem i just looked at that and uh yeah umen stimulus checks do not exist that was from very early planning stages ignore that

[writingbasil]

does shirrdust exist :eyes:

[inking-violets]

i’ll be honest i totally forgot it existed but let’s go with yeah

[inking-violets]

OH LOOK

[writingbasil]

well would ya look at that, can we all forget that ever existed so you don’t throw it in cam’s eyes

[inking-violets]

bi scrivener

because i don’t know How To Tumblr y’all are just gonna get really random things

for tonight’s random thing, check out the pastelly bisexual colored scrivener theme i made!

[inking-violets]

ahem i just looked at that and uh yeah umen stimulus checks do not exist that was from very early planning stages ignore that

[writingbasil]

does shirrdust exist :eyes:

[inking-violets]

i’ll be honest i totally forgot it existed but let’s go with yeah

[basimaree]

my concern is immense but that’s nothing new

[writingbasil]

this is my lovely character, code-named snake. he is bean and the flowers are purely metaphorical <3

[inking-violets]

bi scrivener

because i don’t know How To Tumblr y’all are just gonna get really random things

for tonight’s random thing, check out the pastelly bisexual colored scrivener theme i made!

[inking-violets]

ahem i just looked at that and uh yeah umen stimulus checks do not exist that was from very early planning stages ignore that

[writingbasil]

does shirrdust exist :eyes:

[writingbasil]

hello okay so as some people know i’ve been freaking out over this song since it came out. now i’m going to freak out over it here, too, because i said so and because it’s a PERFECT song for my april nano project.

i’m not a vampire (revamped)

be enlightened. i listened to the original version a ton when i was in early high school and i can’t stop freaking out about the fact that they REMADE IT.

that’s all thanks bye

[writingbasil]

this is kit. he is my child. he is a ghost. he needs hugs.

[writingbasil]

wip intro: necromancy!

yeah i’m stealing this idea from @writes-about-gays-and-dragons and @writer-bird, go follow them both

necromancy!

genre: queer fantasy humor. is that a genre? it is now

status: editing

summary: kit is dead. morgan killed him.  kit is not very happy about this. morgan is not very happy in general. ania and her fellow police officers are quite displeased as well. the havinport bird-watching club, too, is unhappy. luckily, kit can come back to life. unluckily, it involves killing morgan in his place. and morgan does not particularly want to die. shenanigans ensue.

first line:

It is a lovely day for a murder.

characters:

kit emilio: a boy who likes birds and does not like death. unfortunately, he seems to see quite a bit of the latter.

morgan: a murderer-for-hire with a taste for tea and fine clothes. he lives on a boat and, unfortunately for everybody involved, is responsible for kit’s death.

ania drinnet: a police officer for the city of havinport assigned to the case of kit’s murder. she likes cats.

the man in black: a man who wears black. he has dastardly plans.

the havinport bird-watching club: kit, laz, remoro, drom, and ammeri. all have secrets of their own. none of them are very happy about the fact that kit is dead.

what to expect: 

chaos. magic. gay angst. some half-clever lines that i had fun writing. my undying love for all of the characters (but especially kit, morgan, laz, and remoro).

playlist:

https://feelthemusi.com/playlist/b82v8s

[inking-violets]

wip intro - snad

directly stealing this idea from @writes-about-gays-and-dragons

this is the WIP i am currently working on!

genre: science-fiction with fantasy elements (i am so bad at genres lol who knows what this is)

status: drafting (has 68k words at the moment)

summary: on desid, if you have magic, you are killed. it’s for the safety of the entire planet. at least, that’s what beth kriesson thinks. at least, until she finds herself in a mysterious prison built to contain mages. there, she meets various other characters, both nefarious and otherwise, including kai, the blue haired rebel, kansas, a fellow prisoner, and the mysterious commander of the entire place.

first line:

They are taking me to die.

characters:

beth kriesson - she/her, one of three main characters. she is somewhat sarcastic and for some reason does not have magic, despite being sent to a prison designed for mages…

kai trainten - they/them, they have been at the prison orivax for a long time. fond of getting into trouble and sneaking around, kai inevitably finds themself in tight spots and discovering things they probably shouldn’t

the commander - he/him, the person in charge of the prison, the commander inspires fear. but there might be more than meets the eye…… 

what to expect:

-less magic than you would think

-mean soldiers >:(

-inter-planetary conflict

-angst and drama

-sad gays

-happy gays

-secrets

-sand

i’m having a lot of fun working on this right now! tag i will be using for it is #snad

[inking-violets]

SONGS

i like music!!! and i like writing!! why not SMUSH the two together??

aka i create playlists for my wips that are way too long and i love them and now i am going to subject y’all to hearing about them.

today in music for my wips! because i am bored and also procrastinating

welcome to the black parade (mcr) - this is a snad song!

the hunter (sam tinnesz) - this is a saadags (sketchy angels and demons and grocery stores) song!

[writingbasil]

*throws myself into this conversation-that-isn’t-a-conversation* very good songs 10/10 and playlists are very cool and i am also procrastinating so!!! black honey (thrice) - necromancy songgggg !

[writingbasil]

i keep reblogging everything from my main account and my main account needs to burn. in conclusion i’m gay

[inking-violets]

hello hello this is my intro

hello! i am birdie (she/her pronouns) and i like to write! a lot!

this will be a very random and chaotic tumblr where i occasionally reblog things. or talk about works in progress. who knows! sometimes i am on tumblr a lot and sometimes i am not on tumblr at all. we shall see.

i also do not know how to use tumblr very well! at all! so that’s fun (my main blog is @bird-human)

some fun facts about me:

-my favorite color is blue

-i love to read and listen to music quite a lot

-i am a d&d nerd

-i like both coffee and tea but coffee is better to write with

-chocolate is the best

writing fun facts:

-nanowrimo username: writer-bird

-i tend to write fantasy or science fiction, mainly because researching things and being accurate is Overrated and Hard, and magic systems and world building is Very Fun

-i’ve done both nanowrimo and camp nanowrimo before. i participated and won nano for the first time in 2018

-on the first day of nano 2020 i wrote all 50,000 words! i was then very tired

-i am a planter because i plan things and then immediately abandon said plan

my WIPs:

sketchy angels and demons and grocery stores (working title. obviously) - i wrote half of this during nano 2020 and then finished the first draft in january. i need to start editing it but since it’s around 120,000 words it’s absolutely and utterly terrifying! so i’m not right now. it’s about angels and demons, if you couldn’t guess, and it happens to be very queer. there are also bees.

sand - also a working title! it’s about a bunch of magic people (and some non-magic people) and what happens to them after the government SUPPOSEDLY takes them away to be killed (spoiler alert: they’re not killed)

tgh - this is what i’m going to be writing during camp nanowrimo april. it’s a secret. shhhhh

go follow:

@writes-about-gays-and-dragons​ and @rangerlexi-writes​, who inspired me to make this intro!